PS 101 General Psychology

Introduces the study of psychology, the study of the human mind, in some of its many facets: epistemological issues, the brain, perception, learning, language, intelligence, motivation, development, personality, emotion, social influences, pathology and therapy, and prevention. These will be seen from the scientific and scholarly point of view, but with emphasis on their relevance to everyday life. An important focus of the course will be the significance of theories and how they influence the gathering of data, as well as the difficulty of objectivity when the object of study is also its primary tool: the human mind. One of the goals of the course will also be to prepare the student to read psychological literature with a critical eye, keeping in mind the difficulties involved in attempting to study human subjectivity in an objective way.